Vladimir Nabokov “Lolita”

Lolita begins with an earnest foreword of John Ray. Why might Nabokov have chosen to start the book with moralistic feedback?

How can we get to know that main characters are dead from the very beginning? What is the effect of knowing it?

Humbert's confession is written in an extraordinary language. It is by turns colloquial and archaic, erudite and stilted, florid and sardonic. Find examples. Is Humbert's language appropriate to his circumstances and motives?

Humbert attributes his pedophilia (or "nympholepsy") to his tragically aborted childhood romance with Annabel Leigh. Are there any connections with Freudian theory of psychic trauma?

Is Humbert's madness an aspect of his sexual deviance or is it something more fundamental? Can we trust a story told by an insane narrator?

Can Humbert ever be said to "love" Lolita? Does he ever perceive her as a separate being? Is the reader ever permitted to see her in ways that Humbert cannot?

The last lines of Lolita are: "I am thinking of aurochs and angels, the secret of durable pigments, prophetic sonnets, the refuge of art. And this is the only immortality you and I may share, my Lolita". How do you understand this passage?

Sources

Орлова. Образ автора

Р.Барт. Смерть автора

М.Фуко. Что такое автор?

http://www.studygs.net/fictiona.htm - very simple explanation of narrative techniques

Extra task*

Choose an extract from any novel (Texts) of not more than 100 words. Choose the passage which is important for deeper understanding of the narrator’s image. Copy the passage down. Rewrite this passage having changed the narrator.

Change narrators as follows: Caddy in “The Sound and the Fury”, McMurphy in “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest”, Lolita in “Lolita”.

Reflect on this task.

Practical class 8. Anti-utopia in English Literature

Texts for obvious reading

George Orwell. Nineteen Eighty-Four. — Оруэлл Дж. 1984.

Auldos Huxley. Brave New World. – Хаксли O. О дивный новый мир.

Texts for optional reading

Yevgeny Zamyatin. We. – Замятин Е. Мы

Ray Bradbury. Fahrenheit 451. – Брэдбери Р. 451 градус по Фаренгейту.

George Orwell. Animal Farm. — Оруэлл Дж. Скотный двор.

Anthony Burgess. A Clockwork Orange. – Берджесс Э. Заводной апельсин

Other anti-utopian novels:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_dystopian_literature

I. Theoretical part

• Define the term “antiutopia”. What other terms are used to define this genre?

• Read the article from a modern dictionary and formulate main features of anti-utopia. Write these features down. While reading the texts choose those passages which best illustrate each feature. Prepare some quotes.

• Origin of anti-utopian literature. Representatives. Main works.

II. Practical part

«Nineteen Eighty-Four»: Discussion Questions

• How does Orwell depict the relationship between the three classes in the society of Oceania: the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles?

• The Party wages continual war on sexual desires. Why?

• One of the basic ideas in Ingsoc is doublethink. Explain this idea by analyzing O’Brien’s demonstration of it to Winston in the matter of the photograph and Winston’s attempts to master it before he is taken to Room 101.

• Analyze one of the Party slogans: War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, or Ignorance is Strength. What does it mean in the life of an individual citizen like Winston Smith? What does it mean to the Inner Party, to someone like O’Brien?

• Analyze the use of three or four Newspeak words to show how this official language of Oceania serves a political purpose.

• Compare the ways in which the figures of Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein affect life in Oceania. For instance, how are they used by the Party to manipulate opinion?

• What kind of memories of the past does Winston have? What do they mean to him? How do they, for instance, contribute to his sense of the unreality of life in Oceania?

• Analyze the different ways in which Winston and Julia rebel against life in Oceania.

• What qualities in O’Brien does Winston admire both before and during the time in the Ministry of Love?

• Analyze the significance of Winston’s dream of the “Golden Country.”

• The glass paperweight Winston buys from Mr. Charrington is an important symbol in the novel. Why does Winston want it, and what does it represent to him?

• What is the purpose of the verses from songs Orwell uses in several places in the novel?

• Is 1984 a satire on Communism?

• From the evidence of the novel itself, defend one of these two ideas: Orwell intended 1984 as a prophecy; or he intended 1984 as a criticism of contemporary societies.

«Brave New World»: Discussion Questions

• Although they were raised very differently, Bernard Marx and John the Savage are both dissatisfied with the society of the brave new world. What qualities do the characters have in common? How are they different? Compare their strengths and weaknesses.

• In some ways, Linda and Lenina are the most serious rebels of the brave new world. How does the experience of each character challenge the assumptions of the dystopia? Do you think Huxley takes these women characters as seriously as he does the men? Why or why not?

• Analyze Mustapha Mond's role in the novel. How is the World Controller different from the other characters? What is Huxley's purpose is putting Mond in Brave New World? What would the novel be like without Mond?

• Discuss Huxley's use of satire to make his point in the novel. Choose either the scene describing the Solidarity Service that Bernard attends or John's visit to the feelies as the focus for your argument.

• Henry Ford, inventor of the assembly line that made possible mass production, looms large as a kind of god in the brave new world. Discuss the specific ways that the society uses Ford's methods to maintain stability. How does Huxley use Ford and the assembly line to advance his themes?

• "Everybody's happy nowadays," according to the hypnopaedic suggestion. Mustapha Mond himself asserts that happiness and stability are the hallmarks of his society. What evidence does Huxley offer that this is not true? In what specific ways has the promise of happiness not been achieved in the brave new world?

• Does Brave New World suggest that we should seek something else in life rather than our happiness? If so, why?